Review of water requirements for key floodplain vegetation for the northern Basin: literature review and expert knowledge assessment

The review was undertaken to improve the MDBA’s understanding of five floodplain plant species – Red Gum, Black Box, Coolibah, River Cooba and Lignum. All five species are key species along the floodplains of the Murray–Darling Basin. Understanding how these plants use water at different stages of their life cycles and how this might change under a range of conditions is essential for describing the types of watering regimes (i.e. how often, how much and when) these plants need to stay healthy and reproduce to sustain the population.

The review contains detailed information about the water needs of the five species, although there are discrepancies in the amount of information available for each of the plant species. In describing the water needs of these plants, Dr Casanova drew upon a wealth of existing information and added new information that has come out of research and monitoring programs.